[s-cars] Ticket Update - Final Brief for Review

[Bernard Littau]

Hi Alexander,

>     Howdy folks!  Well after feverishly working for the past week with a
> great fellow through the NMA I have finished my brief and case preparation
> for my court case on this coming Tuesday.  For those who don't remember or
> haven't been around, I was charged with 69mph in a 35mph zone in
Shelburne,
> VT.  It is literally impossible for anyone to calmly travel at that speed
in
> the are where I was ticketed, plus the officer was heading towards me
> supposedly with moving radar on and functioning properly.
>
>     The real argument I should be going after is that when cresting a hill
> the moving radar clocking the cruiser speed may have completely lost
contact
> with the side of the road causing the unit to believe the cruiser was not
> moving or moving very slowly, possibly the cosine error occurred in this
> case as well due to the two tight corners where he met me head on.  Since
> the cruiser speed display is only refreshed 2 times a second it may have
> never visually registered as a slower or even 0mph speed.  I may have just
> caught this exact moment when the radar clocked speed of the cruiser was
at
> a very low rate, thus the extra actual speed of his car is added to my
speed
> by the radar equipment.  BUT this is next to impossible to prove, so nuts
to
> that, secondary case.

The cosine error will only reduce the reading on the radar, thus you may
have been going faster.  I'm not sure this is a good idea to bring up.

>
>     Take a look at the brief...
http://www.uvm.edu/avangerb/~finalbrief.doc.
> The brief explains in quite a lengthy fashion how federal guidelines for
> determining the speed limit in question have been ignored.  I have 25-30
> pages of supporting evidence on top of this brief and should manage to tie
> up the court for quite a while if the judge would like me to present the
> case vs. just taking the brief, reading it, and making a ruling later.
Not
> sure how it will all go down, but I've got a whole gameplan set up.

Can't download your brief.  Error 404.

Unless Vermont has a law that says the speed limit must be within the
federal guidelines to be enforced, the whole discussion of appropriate speed
limit is irrelevant.  California, 12 years or so ago, had a law that speed
limits had to meet the 85 percent rule before radar could be used.  This was
at times used to defend against radar tickets.  Overall, I suspect a judge
will simply disallow any discussion such as this as irrelevant.

>
>     Tell me what y'all think and wish me luck!  Thanks again for the
> support!

I believe you are likely doomed if you take this approach.  I know you are a
college student and not flush with funds, but in this case, I think you
should find a Vermont attorney to help you out.  Your best bet is never to
go in front of a judge -- this is something a local attorney might be able
to help you with, but not something you can do on your own.

You might be able to have the attorney get you an extension to allow time
for client-attorney preparation for the case, Tuesday is kinda tight.

Good luck,

Bernard Littau
Woodinville, WA
'88 5ktq